The Aaron Papers  www.the-aaron-papers.net 

  Jeremiah

1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: ²to whom the word of Jehovah came in the days of Jo-si-ah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. ³It came also in the days of Je-hoi-a-kim the son of Jo-si-ah, king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Jo-si-ah, king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.

⁴Now the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, ⁵Before I formed you in the belly I knew you, and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you; I have appointed you a prophet unto the nations. ⁶Then I said, Ah, Lord Jehovah! behold, I know not how to speak; for I am a child. ⁷But Jehovah said unto me, Say not, I am a child; for to whomsoever I shall send you you shall go, and whatsoever I shall command you you shall speak. ⁸Be not afraid because of them; for I am with you to deliver you, says Jehovah. ⁹Then Jehovah put forth his hand, and touched my mouth; and Jehovah said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth: ¹⁰see, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.

¹¹Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said, I see a rod of an almond-tree. ¹²Then said Jehovah unto me, you have well seen: for I watch over my word to perform it. ¹³And the word of Jehovah came unto me the second time, saying, What do you see? And I said, I see a boiling caldron; and the face thereof is from the north. ¹⁴Then Jehovah said unto me, Out of the north evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. ¹⁵For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says Jehovah; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah. ¹⁶And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, in that they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands. ¹⁷You therefore gird up your loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I have command you: be not dismayed at them, unless I dismay you before them. ¹⁸For, behold, I have made you this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. ¹⁹And they shall fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you: for I am with you, says Jehovah, to deliver you.

2 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, ²Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, this says Jehovah, I remember for the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals; how you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. ³Israel was holiness unto Jehovah, the first-fruits of his increase: all that devour him shall be held guilty; evil shall come upon them, says Jehovah. ⁴Hear the word of Jehovah, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel: ⁵this says Jehovah, What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain? ⁶Neither said they, Where is Jehovah that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that none passed through, and where no man dwelt? ⁷And I brought you into a plentiful land, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination. ⁸The priests did not say, Where is Jehovah? and they that handle the law knew me not: the rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

⁹Wherefore I will yet contend with you, says Jehovah, and with your children’s children will I contend. ¹⁰For pass over to the isles of Kittim, and see; and send unto Ke-dar, and consider diligently; and see if there has been such a thing. ¹¹Has a nation changed its gods, which yet are no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. ¹²Be astonished, O you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be very desolate, says Jehovah. ¹³For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

¹⁴Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born slave? why is he become a prey? ¹⁵The young lions have roared upon him, and yelled; and they have made his land waste: his cities are burned up, without inhabitant. ¹⁶The children also of Memphis and Tah-pan-hes have broken the crown of your head. ¹⁷Have you not procured this unto yourself, in that you have forsaken Jehovah your God, when he led you by the way? ¹⁸And now what have you to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? or what have you to do in the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River? ¹⁹Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backslidings shall reprove you: know therefore and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing, that you have forsaken Jehovah your God, and that my fear is not in you, says the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.

²⁰For of old time I have broken your yoke, and burst your bonds; and you said, I will not serve; for upon every high hill and under every green tree you did bow yourself, playing the harlot. ²¹Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then are you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine unto me? ²²For though you wash with lye, and you take much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me, says the Lord Jehovah. ²³How can you say, I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baalim? see your way in the valley, know what you have done: you are a swift dromedary traversing her ways; ²⁴a wild ass used to the wilderness, that sniffs up the wind in her desire; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her. ²⁵Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst: but you said, It is in vain; no, for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go. ²⁶As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets; ²⁷who say to a stock, you are my father; and to a stone, you have brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us. ²⁸But where are your gods that you have made? let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble: for according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah.

²⁹Why will you contend with me? you all have transgressed against me, says Jehovah. ³⁰In vain have I affected your children; they received no correction: your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion. ³¹O generation, see the word of Jehovah. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? or a land of thick darkness? why do my people say, We are broken loose; we will come no more unto you? ³²Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number. ³³What? Trim you your way to seek love! therefore even the wicked women have you taught your ways. ³⁴Also in your skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor: you did not find them breaking in; but it is because of all these things. ³⁵Yet you said, I am innocent; surely his anger is turned away from me. Behold, I will enter into judgment with you, because you say, I have not sinned. ³⁶Why do you gad about so much to change your way? you shall be ashamed of Egypt also, as you were ashamed of Assyria. ³⁷From then also shall you go forth, with your hands upon your head: for Jehovah has rejected those in whom you trust, and you shall not prosper with them.

3 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s wife, will he return unto her again? will not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, says Jehovah. ²Lift up your eyes unto the bare heights, and see; where have you not been lain with? By the ways have you sat for them, as an A-ra-bi-an in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your whoredoms and with your wickedness. ³Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; yet you have a harlot’s forehead, you refuse to be ashamed. ⁴Will you not from this time cry unto me, My Father, you are the guide of my youth? ⁵Will he retain his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way.

⁶Moreover Jehovah said unto me in the days of Jo-si-ah the king, have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the harlot. ⁷And I said after she had done all these things, She will return unto me; but she returned not: and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. ⁸And I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorcement, yet treacherous Judah her sister feared not; but she also went and played the harlot. ⁹And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks. ¹⁰And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not returned unto me with her whole heart, but in pretense, says Jehovah. ¹¹And Jehovah said unto me, Backsliding Israel has showed herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

¹²Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, you backsliding Israel, says Jehovah; I will not look in anger upon you; for I am merciful, says Jehovah, I will not keep anger for ever. ¹³Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Jehovah your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice, says Jehovah. ¹⁴Return, O backsliding children, says Jehovah; for I am a husband unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: ¹⁵and I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. ¹⁶And it shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says Jehovah, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of Jehovah; neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more. ¹⁷At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart. ¹⁸In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance unto your fathers. ¹⁹But I said, How I will put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of the nations! and I said, you shall call me My Father, and shall not turn away from following me.

²⁰Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, says Jehovah. ²¹A voice is heard upon the bare heights, the weeping and the supplications of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten Jehovah their God. ²²Return, you backsliding children, I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we are come unto you; for you are Jehovah our God. ²³Truly in vain is the help that is looked for from the hills, the tumult on the mountains: truly in Jehovah our God is the salvation of Israel. ²⁴But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. ²⁵Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against Jehovah our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day; and we have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah our God.

4 If you will return, O Israel, says Jehovah, if you will return unto me, and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight; then you shall not be removed; ²and you shall swear, As Jehovah lives, in truth, in justice, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.

³For this says Jehovah to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. ⁴Circumcise yourselves to Jehovah, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; unless my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

⁵Declare in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow the trumpet in the land: cry aloud and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities. ⁶Set up a standard toward Zion: flee for safety, delay not; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction. ⁷A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations; he is on his way, he is gone forth from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant. ⁸For this gird yourselves with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of Jehovah is not turned back from us. ⁹And it shall come to pass at that day, says Jehovah, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder. ¹⁰Then said I, Ah, Lord Jehovah! surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, you shall have peace; whereas the sword reaches unto the life. ¹¹At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A hot wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse; ¹²a full wind from these shall come for me: now will I also utter judgments against them. ¹³Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are ruined. ¹⁴O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you? ¹⁵For a voice declares from Dan, and published evil from the hills of Ephraim: ¹⁶make mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah. ¹⁷As keepers of a field are they against her round about, because she has been rebellious against me, says Jehovah. ¹⁸Thy way and your doings have procured these things unto you; this is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches unto your heart.

¹⁹My soul, my soul! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I cannot hold my peace; because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. ²⁰Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, and my curtains in a moment. ²¹How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? ²²For my people are foolish, they know me not; they are silly children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. ²³I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. ²⁴I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved to and fro. ²⁵I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. ²⁶I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of Jehovah, and before his fierce anger. ²⁷For this says Jehovah, The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will I not make a full end. ²⁸For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it. ²⁹Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they go into the thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein. ³⁰And you, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck yourself with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with paint, in vain do you make yourself fair; your lovers despise you, they seek your life. ³¹For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her that brought forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that gasps for breath, that spreads her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul faints before the murderers.

5 Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man, if there be any that does justly, that seeks truth; and I will pardon her. ²And though they say, As Jehovah lives; surely they swear falsely. ³O Jehovah, do not your eyes look upon truth? you have stricken them, but they were not grieved; you have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. ⁴Then I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they know not the way of Jehovah, nor the law of their God: ⁵I will go unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they know the way of Jehovah, and the law of their God. But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. ⁶Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, a wolf of the evenings shall destroy them, a leopard shall watch against their cities; every one that goes out then shall be torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased. ⁷How can I pardon you? your children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the harlots’ houses. ⁸They were as fed horses roaming at large; every one neighed after his neighbor’s wife. ⁹Shall I not visit for these things? says Jehovah; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

¹⁰Go up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her branches; for they are not Jehovah’s. ¹¹For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, says Jehovah. ¹²They have denied Jehovah, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine: ¹³and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: this shall it be done unto them. ¹⁴Therefore this says Jehovah, the God of hosts: Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them. ¹⁵Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, says Jehovah: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you know not, nor understand what they say. ¹⁶Their quiver is an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men. ¹⁷And they shall eat up your harvest, and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat; they shall eat up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig-trees; they shall beat down your fortified cities, wherein you trust, with the sword. ¹⁸But even in those days, says Jehovah, I will not make a full end with you. ¹⁹And it shall come to pass, when you shall say, Why has Jehovah our God done all these things unto us? then shall you say unto them, Like as you have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

²⁰Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, ²¹Now hear this, O foolish people, and without understanding; that have eyes, and see not; that have ears, and hear not: ²²Do you not fear me? says Jehovah: will you not tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it? and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it. ²³But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone. ²⁴Neither do they say in their heart, Let us now fear Jehovah our God, that gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season; that preserves unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

²⁵Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good from you. ²⁶For among my people are found wicked men: they watch, as fowlers lie in wait; they set a trap, they catch men. ²⁷As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and become rich. ²⁸They are become fat, they shine: yes, they overpass in deeds of wickedness; they plead not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. ²⁹Shall I not visit for these things? says Jehovah; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? ³⁰An astounding and horrible thing is come to pass in the land: ³¹the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will you do in the end thereof?

6 Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in TeKo-a, and raise up a signal on Beth-haccherem; for evil looks forth from the north, and a great destruction. ²The comely and delicate one, the daughter of Zion, will I cut off. ³Shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place. ⁴Prepare war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! for the day wanes: for the shadows of the evening are stretched out. ⁵Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us destroy her palaces. ⁶For this has Jehovah of hosts said, Hew down trees, and cast up a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is full of oppression in her midst. ⁷As a well casts forth its waters, so she casts forth her wickedness: violence and destruction is heard in her; before me continually is sickness and wounds. ⁸Be instructed, O Jerusalem, unless my soul be alienated from you; unless I make you a desolation, a land not inhabited.

⁹This says Jehovah of hosts, They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn again your hand as a grape-gatherer into the baskets. ¹⁰To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of Jehovah is become unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it. ¹¹Therefore I am full of the wrath of Jehovah; I am weary with holding in: pour it out upon the children in the street, and upon the assembly of young men together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days. ¹²And their houses shall be turned unto others, their fields and their wives together; for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, says Jehovah. ¹³For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely. ¹⁴They have healed also the hurt of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. ¹⁵Were they ashamed when they had committed idolatry? no, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall; at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, says Jehovah. ¹⁶This says Jehovah, Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls: but they said, We will not walk therein. ¹⁷And I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet; but they said, We will not hearken.

¹⁸Therefore hear, you nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. ¹⁹Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it. ²⁰To what purpose comes there to me frankincense from She-ba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing unto me. ²¹Therefore this says Jehovah, Behold, I will lay stumbling-blocks before this people; and the fathers and the sons together shall stumble against them; the neighbor and his friend shall perish. ²²This says Jehovah, Behold, a people comes from the north country; and a great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth. ²³They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea, and they ride upon horses, every one set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, O daughter of Zion. ²⁴We have heard the report thereof; our hands become feeble: anguish has taken hold of us, and pangs as of a woman in travail. ²⁵Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy, and terror, are on every side. ²⁶O daughter of my people, gird yourselves with sackcloth, and wallow yourselves in ashes: make mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us. ²⁷I have made you a tryer and a fortress among my people; that you may know and try their way. ²⁸They are all grievous revolters, going about with slanders; they are brass and iron: they all deal corruptly. ²⁹The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed by the fire: in vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away. ³⁰Refuse silver shall men call them, because Jehovah has rejected them.

7 The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, ²Stand in the gate of Jehovah’s house, and proclaim this word there, and say, Hear the word of Jehovah, all you of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship Jehovah. ³This says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. ⁴Trust not in lying words, saying, The temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, are these. ⁵For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor; ⁶if you oppress not the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt: ⁷then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even for evermore. ⁸Behold, you trust in lying words, that cannot profit. ⁹Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known, ¹⁰and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered; that you may do all these abominations? ¹¹Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, says Jehovah. ¹²But go now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. ¹³And now, because you have done all these works, says Jehovah, and I spoke unto you, rising up early and speaking, but you heard not; and I called you, but you answered not: ¹⁴therefore will I do unto the house which is called by my name, wherein you trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. ¹⁵And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

¹⁶Therefore do not pray for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear you. ¹⁷Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. ¹⁹Do they provoke me to anger? says Jehovah; do they not provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces? ²⁰Therefore this says the Lord Jehovah: Behold, my anger and my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

²¹This says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. ²²For I spoke not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices: ²³but this thing I commanded them, saying, Hearken unto my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the ways that I command you, that it may be well with you. ²⁴But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. ²⁵Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: ²⁶yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers. ²⁷And you shall speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to you: you shall also call unto them; but they will not answer you. ²⁸And you shall say unto them, This is the nation that has not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah their God, nor received instruction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

²⁹Cut off your hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Jehovah has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. ³⁰For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight, says Jehovah: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it. ³¹And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded not, neither did it came into my mind. ³²Therefore, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, till there be no place to bury. ³³And the dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall frighten them away. ³⁴Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste.

8 At that time, says Jehovah, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves; ²and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth. ³And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven them, says Jehovah of hosts.

⁴Moreover you shall say unto them, this says Jehovah: Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return? ⁵Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. ⁶I hearkened and heard, but they spoke not aright: no man repents of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turns to his course, as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle. ⁷Yes, the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times; and the turtle-dove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the law of Jehovah. ⁸How do you say, We are wise, and the law of Jehovah is with us? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has wrought falsely. ⁹The wise men are put to shame, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of Jehovah; and what manner of wisdom is in them? ¹⁰Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall possess them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely. ¹¹And they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. ¹²Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? no, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says Jehovah.

9 Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! ²Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. ³And they bend their tongue, as it were their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says Jehovah. ⁴Take heed every one of his neighbor, and trust not in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders. ⁵And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity. ⁶Your habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, says Jehovah. ⁷Therefore this says Jehovah of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how else should I do, because of the daughter of my people? ⁸Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it spoke deceit: one spoke peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he lays wait for him. ⁹Shall I not visit them for these things, says Jehovah? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? ¹⁰For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passes through; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the birds of the heavens and the beasts are fled, they are gone. ¹¹And I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling-place of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.

¹²Who is the wise man, that may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of Jehovah has spoken, that he may declare it? why is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passes through? ¹³And Jehovah says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein, ¹⁴but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baalim, which their fathers taught them; ¹⁵therefore this says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. ¹⁶I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them. ¹⁷This says Jehovah of hosts, Consider and call for the mourners, that they may come; and send for the wise women, that they may come: ¹⁸and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters. ¹⁹For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How we are ruined! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings. ²⁰Yet hear the word of Jehovah, O you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbor lamentation. ²¹For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets. ²²Speak, this says Jehovah, The dead bodies of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman; and none shall gather them.

²³This says Jehovah, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; ²⁴but let him that glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Jehovah who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says Jehovah. ²⁵Behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will punish all them that are circumcised in their uncircumcision: ²⁶Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Am-mon, and Mo-ab, and all that have the corners of their hair cut off, that dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.

10 Hear the word which Jehovah spoke unto you, O house of Israel: ²this says Jehovah, Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the nations are dismayed at them. ³For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe. ⁴They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. ⁵They are like a palm-tree, of  turned work, and speak not: they must need to be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good. ⁶There is none like unto you, O Jehovah; you are great, and your name is great in might. ⁷Who should not fear you, O King of the nations? for this is your rightful due; forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is none like unto you. ⁸But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols! it is but a stock. ⁹There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tar-shish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artificer and of the hands of the goldsmith; blue and purple for their clothing; they are all the work of skilful men. ¹⁰But Jehovah is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembles, and the nations are not able to abide his indignation. ¹¹This shall you say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens. ¹²He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens: ¹³when he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain, and has brought forth the wind out of his treasuries. ¹⁴Every man is become brutish and is without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his graven image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. ¹⁵They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. ¹⁶The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Jehovah of hosts is his name.

¹⁷Gather up your wares out of the land, O you that abide in the siege. ¹⁸For this says Jehovah, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may feel it. ¹⁹Woe is me because of my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is my grief, and I must bear it. ²⁰My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth from me, and they are not: there is none to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains. ²¹For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of Jehovah: therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered. ²²The voice of tidings, behold, it comes, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling-place of jackals. ²³O Jehovah, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his own steps. ²⁴O Jehovah, correct me, but in measure: not in your anger, unless you bring me to nothing. ²⁵Pour out your wrath upon the nations that know you not, and upon the families that call not on your name: for they have devoured Jacob, yes, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.

11 The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, ²Hear the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; ³and say you unto them, this says Jehovah, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man that hears not the words of this covenant, ⁴which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall you be my people, and I will be your God; ⁵that I may establish the oath which I swore unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day. Then answered I, and said, Amen, O Jehovah. ⁶And Jehovah said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear the words of this covenant, and do them. ⁷For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice. ⁸Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the stubbornness of their evil heart: therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did them not. ⁹And Jehovah said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁰They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words; and they are gone after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.

¹¹Therefore this says Jehovah, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and they shall cry unto me, but I will not hearken unto them. ¹²Then shall the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem go and cry unto the gods unto which they offer incense: but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble. ¹³For according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to the shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal. ¹⁴Therefore pray not for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me because of their trouble. ¹⁵What has my beloved to do in my house, seeing she has wrought lewdness with many, and the holy flesh is passed from you? when you do evil, then you rejoice. ¹⁶Jehovah called your name, A green olive-tree, fair with goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken. ¹⁷For Jehovah of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have wrought for themselves in provoking me to anger by offering incense unto Baal.

¹⁸And Jehovah gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it: then you showed me their doings. ¹⁹But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered. ²⁰But, O Jehovah of hosts, who judges righteously, who tries the heart and the mind, I shall see your vengeance on them; for unto you have I revealed my cause. ²¹Therefore this says Jehovah concerning the men of Anathoth, that seek your life, saying, you shall not prophesy in the name of Jehovah, that you die not by our hand; ²²therefore this says Jehovah of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine; ²³and there shall be no remnant unto them: for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.

12 You are righteous, O Jehovah, when I contend with you; yet would I reason the cause with you: why does the way of the wicked prosper? why are all they at ease that deal very treacherously? ²You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; they grow, yes, they bring forth fruit: you are near in their mouth, and far from their heart. ³But you, O Jehovah, know me; you see me, and have tried my heart toward you: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter. ⁴How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of the whole country where? for the wickedness of them that dwell therein, the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our latter end. ⁵If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? and though in a land of peace you are secure, yet how will you do in the pride of the Jordan? ⁶For even your brethren, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; even they have cried aloud after you: believe them not, though they speak fair words unto you.

⁷I have forsaken my house, I have cast off my heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies. ⁸My heritage is become unto me as a lion in the forest: she has uttered her voice against me; therefore I have hated her. ⁹Is my heritage unto me as a speckled bird of prey? are the birds of prey against her round about? go and assemble all the beasts of the field, bring them to devour. ¹⁰Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. ¹¹They have made it a desolation; it mourns unto me, being desolate; the whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart. ¹²Destroyers are come upon all the bare heights in the wilderness; for the sword of Jehovah devours from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh has peace. ¹³They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns; they have put themselves to pain, and profit nothing: and you shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of the fierce anger of Jehovah.

¹⁴This says Jehovah against all my evil neighbors, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit: behold, I will pluck them up from off their land, and will pluck up the house of Judah from among them. ¹⁵And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them; and I will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land. ¹⁶And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, As Jehovah lives; even as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built up in the midst of my people. ¹⁷But if they will not hear, then will I pluck up that nation, plucking up and destroying it, says Jehovah.

13 This says Jehovah unto me, Go, and buy you a linen girdle, and put it upon your loins, and put it not in water. ²So I bought a girdle according to the word of Jehovah, and put it upon my loins. ³And the word of Jehovah came unto me the second time, saying, ⁴Take the girdle that you have bought, which is upon your loins, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock. ⁵So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as Jehovah commanded me. ⁶And it came to pass after many days, that Jehovah said unto me, Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the girdle from there, which I commanded you to hide. ⁷Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it; and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing. ⁸Then the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, ⁹This says Jehovah, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem. ¹⁰This evil people, that refuse to hear my words, that walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and are gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is profitable for nothing. ¹¹For as the girdle cleaves to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, says Jehovah; that they may be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.

¹²Therefore you shall speak unto them this word: this says Jehovah, the God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall say unto you, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine? ¹³Then shall you say unto them, this says Jehovah, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David’s throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness. ¹⁴And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, says Jehovah: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have compassion, that I should not destroy them. ¹⁵Hear now, and give ear; be not proud; for Jehovah has spoken. ¹⁶Give glory to Jehovah your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while you look for light, he turns it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness. ¹⁷But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret for your pride; and my eye shall weep much, and run down with tears, because Jehovah’s flock is taken captive. ¹⁸Say unto the king and to the queen-mother, Humble yourselves, sit down; for your rule shall collapse, even the crown of your glory. ¹⁹The cities of the South are shut up, and there is none to open them: Judah is carried away captive, all of it; it is wholly carried away captive. ²⁰Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock? ²¹What will you say, when he shall set over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be friends to you? shall not sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in travail?

²²And if you say in your heart, Why are these things come upon me? for the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts uncovered, and your heels suffer violence. ²³Can the E-thi-o-pi-an change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. ²⁴Therefore will I scatter them, as the stubble that passes away, by the wind of the wilderness. ²⁵This is your lot, the portion measured unto you from me, says Jehovah; because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood. ²⁶Therefore will I also uncover your skirts upon your face, and your shame shall appear. ²⁷I have seen your abominations, even your adulteries, and your neighings, the lewdness of your whoredom, on the hills in the field. Woe unto you, O Jerusalem! you will not be made clean; how long shall it yet be?

14 The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought. ²Judah mourns, and the gates thereof languish, they sit in black upon the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. ³And their nobles send their little ones to the waters: they come to the cisterns, and find no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are put to shame and confounded, and cover their heads. ⁴Because of the ground which is cracked, for that no rain has been in the land, the plowmen are put to shame, they cover their heads. ⁵Yes, the doe also gave birth in the field, and forsook it, because there is no grass. ⁶And the wild asses stand on the bare heights, they pant for air like jackals; their eyes fail, because there is no grass. ⁷Though our iniquities testify against us, work for your name’s sake, O Jehovah; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you. ⁸O you are the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble, why should you be as a sojourner in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turns aside to tarry for a night? ⁹Why should you be as a man frightened, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet you, O Jehovah, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; leave us not.

¹⁰This says Jehovah unto this people, Even so have they loved to wander; they have not refrained their feet: therefore Jehovah does not accept them; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins. And Jehovah said unto me, Pray not for this people for their good. ¹²When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt-offering and meal-offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence. ¹³Then I said, Ah, Lord Jehovah! Behold, the prophets say unto them, you shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place. ¹⁴Then Jehovah said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name; I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither did I speak unto them: they prophesy unto you a lying vision, and divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart. ¹⁵Therefore this says Jehovah concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed. ¹⁶And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them--them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them.

¹⁷And you shall say this word unto them, Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous wound. ¹⁸If I go forth into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then, behold, they that are sick with famine! for both the prophet and the priest go about in the land, and have no knowledge. ¹⁹Have you utterly rejected Judah? has your soul loathed Zion? why have you affected us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and, behold, dismay! ²⁰We acknowledge, O Jehovah, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against you. ²¹Do not despise us, for your name’s sake; do not disgrace the throne of your glory: remember, break not your covenant with us. ²²Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? are not you he, O Jehovah our God? therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things.

15 Then Jehovah said unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth. ²And it shall come to pass, when they say unto you, where shall we go forth? then you shall tell them, this says Jehovah: Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity. ³And I will appoint over them four kinds, says Jehovah: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of the heavens, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and to destroy. ⁴And I will cause them to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. ⁵For who will have pity upon you, O Jerusalem? or who will bemoan you? or who will turn aside to ask of your welfare? ⁶You have rejected me, says Jehovah, you are gone backward: therefore have I stretched out my hand against you, and destroyed you; I am weary with repenting. ⁷And I have scattered them with a fan in the gates of the land; I have bereaved them of children, I have destroyed my people; they returned not from their ways. ⁸Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas; I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors to fall upon her suddenly. ⁹She that has borne seven languishes; she has given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she has been put to shame and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, says Jehovah.

¹⁰Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; yet every one of them does curse me. ¹¹Jehovah said, Verily I will strengthen you for good; verily I will cause the enemy to make supplication unto you in the time of evil and in the time of affliction. ¹²Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and brass? ¹³Your substance and your treasures will I give for a plunder without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders. ¹⁴And I will make them to pass with your enemies into a land which you know not; for a fire is kindled in my anger, which shall burn upon you.

¹⁵O Jehovah, you know; remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors; do not take me away in your longsuffering: know that for your sake I have suffered reproach. ¹⁶Your words were found, and I did eat them; and your words were unto me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by your name, O Jehovah, God of hosts. ¹⁷I sat not in the assembly of them that make merry, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of your hand; for you have filled me with indignation. ¹⁸Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? will you indeed be unto me as a deceitful brook, as waters that fail? ¹⁹Therefore this says Jehovah, If you return, then will I bring you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth: they shall return unto you, but you shall not return unto them. ²⁰And I will make you unto this people a fortified brazen wall; and they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and to deliver you, says Jehovah. ²¹And I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible.

16 The word of Jehovah came also unto me, saying, ²You shall not take you a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters, in this place. ³For this says Jehovah concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land: ⁴They shall die grievous deaths: they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung upon the face of the ground; and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth. ⁵For this says Jehovah, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament, neither bemoan them; for I have taken away my peace from this people, says Jehovah, even lovingkindness and tender mercies. ⁶Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them; ⁷neither shall men break bread for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother. ⁸And you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink. ⁹For this says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

¹⁰And it shall come to pass, when you shall show this people all these words, and they shall say unto you, Why has Jehovah pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against Jehovah our God? ¹¹Then shall you say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, says Jehovah, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law; ¹²and you have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold, you walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you hearken not unto me: ¹³therefore will I cast you forth out of this land into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there shall you serve other gods day and night; for I will show you no favor.

¹⁴Therefore, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that it shall no more be said, As Jehovah lives, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; ¹⁵but, As Jehovah lives, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries where he had driven them. And I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. ¹⁶Behold, I will send for many fishers, says Jehovah, and they shall fish them up; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. ¹⁷For my eyes are upon all their ways; they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. ¹⁸And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations. ¹⁹O Jehovah, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, unto you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, even vanity and things wherein there is no profit. ²⁰Shall a man make unto himself gods, which yet are no gods? ²¹Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know, this once will I cause them to know my hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is Jehovah.

17 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the tablet of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars; ²while their children remember their altars and their Asherim by the green trees upon the high hills. ³O my mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures for a plunder, and your high places, because of sin, throughout all your borders. ⁴And you, even of yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you know not: for you have kindled a fire in my anger which shall burn for ever.

⁵This says Jehovah: Cursed is the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from Jehovah. ⁶For he shall be like the juniper in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited. ⁷Blessed is the man that trusts in Jehovah, and whose trust Jehovah is. ⁸For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat comes, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. ⁹The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it? ¹⁰I, Jehovah, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. ¹¹As the partridge that sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he that gets riches, and not by right; in the midst of his days they shall leave him, and at his end he shall be a fool.

¹²A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary. ¹³O Jehovah, the hope of Israel, all that forsake you shall be put to shame. They that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken Jehovah, the fountain of living waters. ¹⁴Heal me, O Jehovah, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for you are my praise. ¹⁵Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of Jehovah? let it come now. ¹⁶As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd after you; neither have I desired the woeful day; you know: that which came out of my lips was before your face. ¹⁷Be not a terror unto me: you are my refuge in the day of evil. ¹⁸Let them be put to shame that persecute me, but let me not be put to shame; let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed; bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.

¹⁹This said Jehovah unto me: Go, and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; ²⁰and say unto them, Hear the word of Jehovah, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates: ²¹This says Jehovah, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; ²²neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do you any work: but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. ²³But they hearkened not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction. ²⁴And it shall come to pass, if you diligently hearken unto me, says Jehovah, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein; ²⁵then shall there enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain for ever. ²⁶And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places round about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowland, and from the hill-country, and from the South, bringing burnt-offerings, and sacrifices, and meal-offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving, unto the house of Jehovah. ²⁷But if you will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

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